the tenth participant in the attacks in parisment his older brother was among the suicide bombers who detonated himself during these attacks. nbc news's richard engel has been following this breaking story. he joins us from istanbul turkey. let's talk about this raid and the reports that we've been hearing about explosions near where police were searching. >> the raid is ongoing and there have been moments when it seemed like the raid was over, when the officers on the scene had a much calmer demeanor. but then about an hour and a half, i believe, ago, there were reports that nbc news confirmed of explosions, at least two explosions. police focused in, tightened their cordon around one particular location where that explosion came from and now there are several news reports

that three isn'ts have been apprehended. all nbc news has been able to confirm at this stage is that salah abdeslam was one of them, that he was injured in the leg, taken to a hospital, it appears. there is some video showing a suspect being bundled into a car, hopping on one leg, no definitive identification on who he is. but the operation it seems wasn't -- may be winding down but not over yet. >> richard engel from istanbul, turkey. this is truly a significant day in the fight against isis. we have the u.s. special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter isis writing on twitter "congratulations to belgian authorities on capture of terrorist salah abdeslam. we will never forget his and all isil victims." ayman mohyeldin is standing by

for us. ay men, in your opinion this area of molenbeek, abdeslam growing up in this area. characterize what you were saw when you were on the streets there. what you learned? >> at the time we visited it was shortly after the paris attacks, there was a lot of attention put on this district within brussels, a lot of intelligence as well as a lot of surveillance from count terrorism officials who were focused in on this particular neighborhood. one of the reasons, the mastermind of the paris attacks was belgian, spent time in molenbeek, believed to have been from the area. so, too, was the brother of salah abdeslam who actually went through and carried out one of the suicide detonations at the paris attacks on that night. now, keep in mind salah abdeslam is believed to have been one of the attackers involved in attack but never actually went through with detonating the explosives

on him. when he left paris authorities believed they escaped to molenbeek. one of his older brothers, salah abdeslam, still lives in molen fwoek this day and he was very outspoken to the media telling the media he condemned his involvement, tried to say his brother was misguided by his participation with these individuals, the neighborhood itself a fairly tough neighborhood. not very welcoming to outside strangers, plaedly foreign media that descended upon molenbeek during those few days. at the time we spoke to descendents of north african migrants expressing their grievances if you will with living in that district, the population nearly 30% to 40% muslim posing challenges for the officials and trying to assimilate within the larger belgian society. it's been the subject of several raids in the past several

months. so a lot of questions as to how salah abdeslam managed to return to molenbeek if, in fact, he was at some point away from that district over the course of the past four months. it does give you a sense of the kind of network or at least the support network he had that allowed him to feel safe enough to come back to molenbeek on this day. >> so we remind everybody, amman, that he was driven back across the french board interbelgium. they collected in paris after the attacks the car was stopped by french belgian authorities, he was allowed to continue after they checked his i.d. ayman, would isis consider him to be a weakness because -- and maybe marginalized him because he didn't follow through of his part or would he be seen as an asset in terms of moving forward with their future plots? >> that's a very good question and one that authorities will try to answer.

there's no doubt that -- you were talking about this earlier. there is a question about whether or not there was an isis-inspired attack or isis-directed attack. all indications suggest this was isis directed attack. the ringleader, abdelhamid abaaoud had traveled to isis. there was prominent video of him on the battlefield in syria and that showed that he had a very close operational link within the organization in terms of what he was doing there. what we know is that since the paris attacks salah abdeslam has not been featured in isis propaganda. the other attackers, though, those that went through their attacks and carried out the attacks were, in fact, featured very prominently in isis propaganda and that could shed light on to isis' thinking. could bit they are aware he was on the large, that they were still in contact with him, that they wanted him to somehow

reconstitute another cell under his leadership? or did they feel they he had been already a person they did not want to associate with since he didn't go through with his attack? and why that's such an important question is that now authorities have salah abdeslam in their custody. they're going to try to assess this on a few different levels. the most urgent and most immediate is going to be the public safety. was he involved in anything? was he involved in planning? was he part of a cell or is he aware of any other cells currently operational in europe, in brussels, that they need to go after immediately feeling that now that he's been compromised they may be activated or they may even go deeper underground. so that's going to be a major focus. the second focus is going to be about the larger time frame of hiss involvement in the paris attacks. he was somebody that obviously was on the inner circle of that trust of those attackers. they're going to speak to him about what he knew about the planning of this attack there

are individuals that provided by logistical supports, transferring finances? how did they move around in and out of brussels and other european cities with relative ease despite the fact the ringleader was very well known to authorities, his name was on a list, his image was well known to intelligence officials so a lot of questions that will be answered now with the fact that salah abdeslam has been captured alive and not dead. >> and abaaoud was killed in raids, he could have been an international security asset getting to him and for his knowledge and now we see salah abdeslam in custody i man, thank you so much. i want to go to michael kaye. michael, you've been watching this with me. the video we had earlier vtm, we don't know if that's salah abdeslam. he looks -- at least the suspect looks to be injured as he's dragged into the back of the volkswagen there. we'll wait to find out and confirm from the belgian prosecutors' office what happened here. but talk about the importance of

him being taken alive and it had orders they make under to make sure that happened. >> that's a great question and the point you raise is vital. there were three points of intelligence that authorities will be looking at and the whole degradation of the islamic state is a huge problem that needs to be approached holistically. but the intelligence authorities will be going on three key pieces of intelligence. the first one will be what's called imagery intelligence, that's the cameras that are bolted on to the drones that we see over the battlefield in syria, trying to identify the locations of the islamic state. the second is basically sensors on the drone listening out to conversations, mobile conversations, any form of conversation that will alert the authorities to their whereabouts. signals intelligence. and the third that the west is having a problem with is human intelligence. it's one of the reasons we've not been able to get inside raqqah, the self-proclaimed capital of the islamic state. and it's one of the things that

is a manpower-intensive capability and understanding that the authorities across europe are having a significant problem with. i think one thing, thomas, that's really important to mention here is that belgium has the highest number of jihadists per capita in the entirety of europe and also western countries. that's huge. it's about 500 jihadis per 11 million people. there's another significant factor here as well. within the monitoring of social media, over two million social media hits, there's only people in qatar and pakistan that are more proponent of what isis is doing than in belgium. so it's a hornet's nest, if you like. and there are a number of reasons why. one of the reasons is a group called sharia for belgium. sharia for belgium was an offshoot that established itself in belgium within 2010 and it's an offshoot of the british organizations led by omar bakri, now deported and in lebanon and also anjem choudary who still exists in england and the uk.

so sharia for belgium is an organization that allowed to grow and operate with impunity, if you like, since 2010. and i think that has been part of the problem in allowing people like abdeslam to go to belgium and operate there inside this cover, if you like. that combined with the intensive manpower resource that is required by the intelligence authorities not just to monitor, you know, the planners of the paris attacks but the plethora, the hundreds of other sort of cells that are operating there. it's all part of this big wholistic problem that needs attacking. >> from what you know about isis and how they operate, how they treat their actors, do you think that he would be considered a weakness or an asset based on what the working theory of his escape was from the attacks. that he chickened out, basically, from whatever his mission was. >> one of the things that makes the islamic state so effective is the way that it has been able to harness social media to inspire. now, there are a number of pros

with that and there are a number of cons. the pros are is that it kind of detachs the leadership of the islamic state in terms of the ability to track down those communications, it detachs the islamic state from those communications with terror cells and makes it harder to identify the terror cells. one of the cons of that is that the terror cells are more inspired are not necessarily given the access to equipment, the weapons, are also the training. so it kind of makes them -- when it comes to the execution it makes them less effective to carry out an attack. so there are pros and cons but the direct chain of command, if you have an organization or a terror cell that has a direct link through the chain of command into the leadership of the islamic state coming out of raqqah and mosul in iraq, then they are more likely to affect a terror attack. it's likely to be more success. if that chain of command is established but it's also more likely to be compromised and so that's where the divisions are. in answer to your question, i still think there has to be an understanding of what was the direct link between salah and

the leadership within the islamic state, how that is proven and then, beyond that, what is the ability of the islamic state to have direct communications with other terror cells and what the inspiration is. but this is a wholistic approach, thomas and we need to look at, yes, there are air strikes going on by the u.s.-led coalition since 2014, it's over 11 million per day in raqqah at the moment but the islamic state has been allowed to operate inside syria with impunity because of the other issues. the other issues being the problem of assad, the problem that the rebels inside syria are there because of assad and because of that power vacuum, the islamic state has been allowed to operate. is same with mosul. and the sooner that raqqah and mosul can be liberated, if you like, then that has to lead in some way to affect the capability of the islamic state to conduct these operations. since 2014 we've had the tunisia massacre, we've had paris

attacks twice, a plethora of bombings inside baghdad by the islamic state. so since the u.s. -- >> the isis-inspired attack that happened in san bernardino. >> and that's all happened whilst u.s. air strikes have been going on so yes you need to degrade the capability but you have to understand that recruit system a huge piece of this. as we know there europe, the immigration channels, the fact that weapons have literally come out of libya, the proliferation of weapons is a porous problem and we need to attack it from both sides and i think this is the problem the west is struggling with. >> i'm sure a lot of people will look at this as a huge gain in terms of international intelligence information, the potential that abdeslsalah abde being captured alive and what he can effectively give in terms of embedded cells, especially there in brussels. mike, stand by for me. we'll go to laura haim, laura being the white house correspondent for canal plus. laura, let's talk about what

expectation we'll hear from the foreign leaders, those within belgium and also france talking about this confirmation. >> what is interesting is information about the confirmation. yesterday there was the information about abdeslam. he was one of the terrorists in november attacks. due to legal issues, his funeral was only yesterday and he was the brother of abdeslam and according to our sources, the french police went to, of course, the funeral to watch what was there around a friend of the abdeslam family was there, we don't know if abdeslam himself was there. some sources are telling us some say yes, others say no, it was a

friend. but this case was extremely important for the french police and belgian police then after, from this funeral, they found out where abdeslam was living and they were able to do the arrest this morning in belgium. >> he, again, being the older brother. detonating himself outside of the voltaire if i'm remembering this correctly, laura? >> yeah, he was one of the tourists who was involved in one of the attacks. he was involved in the attacks in the restaurant and how to bring back the body to his family was a huge legal issue with the french and belgian authorities so it took a lot of time to have his body back to belgium. and what is fascinating in the

story is the fact that, again, the funeral was yesterday, the abdeslam family was there. some sources are telling us they saw abdeslam at the funeral of his brother. but after the funeral, definitely something happened which alerted the french police and the belgian police to identify the location where abdeslam was. >> laura, there was also a recreation that was done by investigators at the bataclan yesterday, if i'm correct. this is the first time that is the concert hall where the eagles of death metal were on the stage when attackers opened fire there. they did a reenactment to try and learn what went wrong in terms of that type of operation to save those people. 89 people dying inside. >> you're absolutely right. there was a recreation yesterday. it was according to the family extremely suspensable and very

emotional even for the people no who are involved in the recreation of this attack so what is interesting also is the fact that the french interior minister was in washington last we week. i met with him and i was asking him a question about do you know where abdeslam is? what happened to him? and he was quite aggressive in his answer by saying "i don't know, i cannot comment, i'm not going to give you any information about what's going on." and i pushed and i said "do you know if he's back in syria? how do you explain the fact that we don't have any news from him?" and he was kwai silent about that and he acknowledged in our interview with him that since last year 11 attacks have been permitted by the french in

france and that the threat is extremely dangerous and the threat is still in france a reality. >> laura haim with canal plus, the white house correspondent for her network. laura, thanks so much. i want to go now to tara palmieri, a reporter for politico in brussels, joins us by telephone. tara, you were hearing what laura was talking about there, the funeral for that took place for salah abdeslam. there was another brother that was forceful speaking after the attacks saying his brothers were misguided and corrupted by this but you were at the raid on tuesday and you talked about that. this is the raid that really gave police a big tip because of finding deah nay of abdeslam in that apartment. is it suspected that he never left belgium after reentering after november 13. what are sources saying to you?

>> our sources are saying he didn't leave. in fact, he moved 450 meters from where they think he planned the attack. so it's amazing how he was able to be protected for so long. over four months since the attacks and, yeah, they weren't able to find him. but it was -- the unexpected raid on tuesday when they thought they were walking into an empty home because the utility bills hadn't been paid in months, ended up being very fruitful despite the fact that three officers were wounded from it. >> there was one person shot, a sniper killed a gunman through a window and there was a kalashnikov found inside as well as a islamic state flag? >> and when the police tried to go inside they were shot through the door so three cops were shot from the door. so it was very helpful that the sense that they found abdeslam's

fingerprints on a glass, they were able to track him down know he was still in brussels and they were expecting to get clues to a second ring, not the inner ring. >> and people escaped and they don't know if it was salah being one of them, correct? >> i've been told by belgian authorities that sal da l.a. did not escape. that he was not in the home. >> but there was a dna portion of evidence that linked him to that flat at some point? >> right. he was there at one point. belgian authorities told me he was not there at that point when they conducted the raid. >> tara palmieri with politico based in brussels for us. tear, a thank you so much. we are going to stay on top of the developments out of this story. any of the late breaking developments from brussels and political news to cover as well. i want to turn it over to my colleague kate snow in tucson, arizona, with more of the political day. kate, good afternoon? >> hi, thomas. there is a lot going on. we're live today in tucson

because the race for the white house is in full swing here. they vote here in arizona on tuesday. after the break, we'll focus on the effort to stop donald trump. no official movement under way within the gop but folks far and wide are vowing to do all they can to block the front-runner today from claiming the party's nomination. we'll dig into that coming up. ♪ in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today. all across the state, the economy is growing, with creative new business incentives, the lowest taxes in decades, and new infrastructure for a new generation attracting the talent and companies of tomorrow. like in rochester, with world-class botox. and in buffalo, where medicine meets the future. let us help grow your company's tomorrow - today - at business.ny.gov it's my job and it's i takealso my passion.rises. but with my back pain i couldn't sleep... so i couldn't get up in time. then i found aleve pm.

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back now live from tucson, arizona. and back in june we asked if donald trump was for real. then in january people asked could he win. now exactly four months from the republican national convention we are all asking if there's anything his foes, establishment or otherwise, can really do to stop him because they are trying. the stop trump campaign has expanded in the past few days. a group of conservative activists met in downtown washington yesterday,

conservative megadonors reportedly met in florida last night. former candidate lindsey graham is raising money for ted cruz. marco rubio hinted he might as well and club for growth debuted a new anti-trump ad up in utah. but it seems like all this is quantity over quality maybe. there's no united front here. no clear and distinct strategy from all these separate parts so while the stop trump campaign tries to get on its feet, the republican front-runner has his sights set here on arizona. ted cruz and donald trump will be here this weekend along with bernie sanders in town tonight. that while hillary clinton does fund-raising and john kasich is to the north of us in utah. joining me now from washington, nbc news senior political editor mark murray. a lot of talk today about the stop trump effort and you wrote on first read this morning about how disjointed it seems. it's not like there's a phone number we can call to get ahold of the stop trump people. >> there doesn't seem to be a

strategy or everyone a singular person to be able to run against donald trump right now. new arizona and we'll end up seeing tuesday what happens. the delegates in arizona are winner take all and it's possible that donald trump ends up winning arizona, taking the nearly 60 delegates and a winner take all situation and getting proportionally delegates from the other state participating on tuesday, that's u.s. utah. if both of those happen, donald trump widens his lead. you are right there are so many different efforts we've seen over the past 48 hours, republicans who feel like they need to stop donald trump but we are now more than halfway through the primary season and republicans yet haven't been able to identify and solidify around one single strategy on how to take him on. >> and if i can play a little sound just in today, laura bush, the former first lady, was asked by "usa today's" susan page about whether she would vote and support donald trump if he's the nominee. take a listen.

>> i'm not going to answer. [ laughter ] don't ask that. >> is there a point where you would feel compelled to come off the sidelines to speak against -- >> well, this is what i want americans to remember. what our real values are. and one of the very first things, one of the reasons we are a country is because we believed in freedom of religion. that's what we need to remember. we need to remember what our own values are. >> mark, just another voice on that side of things, avoiding the question, not wanting to say she's going to support donald trump. but i wonder on the flip side you have donald trump on twitter in the last hour talking about erikson saying "eric son got fired like a dog from red state, now he's a leading opposition against me." so my question is this husband this hurt donald trump or does he use it to rally more support? he'll use it to rally more

support. one of the things helping donald trump is this is still a three-person field. this is not a one-on-one race. three candidates are running, donald trump, ted cruz and john kasich. people like erick erickson who is trying to rally one of the stop trump movements, he yesterday ended up calling for a unity ticket to be able to oppose donald trump at a convention. one of the shortcomings and possible flaws is who is this unit ticket? ted cruz and john kasich? ted cruz and someone else? because you're not able to identify who the opposition should even be around donald trump, that allows donald trump to keep on what he's doing and in a three person race he only needs 40% to 45% of the vote to win in the contexts that some are winner take all. >> mark murray, political director, thanks so much. as we wait for that press conference in brussels, belgium, joining me now, steve ryan, one of the main anchors of kvoa, our

local affiliate in tucson. good afternoon. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks to for coming out on a busy news day. >> off to work after this. >> i know you're going to anchor the news tonight. let's talk democrats. bernie sanders is saying western states favor him. he thinks he has a shot, but you look at the latest poll out of arizona, it has clinton leading sanders by 26 points. we're sitting in tucson which, we should say, is a pretty democratic place. like the only real stronghold for democrats in the state of arizona. >> it's almost a paradox to arizona as a whole. arizona typically for more than half a century now leans republican. tucson typically leans democratic. sanders i don't see as the big viable candidate in this next of the boods. clinton and trump lead the polls so much that sanders is trailing behind drastically. >> you don't hear people talking about bernie sanders. you don't see the feel the bern signs? >> it's clinton and trump

mostly. >> if trump builds the wall he keeps talking about it would run right through southern arizona. ted cruz is down there as we speak. we'll be getting video of him visiting the border at douglas arizona. how does that play with voters? all the talk about enforcing immigration laws. >> down there's huge. doug slas las is the epicenter border issues. i think it's good for cruz to check it out but trump is the one under the microscope with border issues here. his comments about immigration and the wall, potentially making mexico pay for it, will spread like wildfire in southern arizona. especially with the democrats down here because tucson itself is typically democrat, that could have an impact on trump but if you look at it, it's crucial for him either way because this is a winner take all for the republicans. >> and in terms of arizona voters, we were looking at the numbers. you guy have 1.2 million

independents registered in arizona and the rules for the vote on tuesday which they don't even call a primary here, but the selection vote on tuesday, you can't be an independent, right, and walk in and cast a ballot. >> democrats or republicans only. and the interesting thing about that is independents make up the majority of voters in arizona so to not have their voice herd on the front end is interesting. >> i wonder if that hurts donald trump because he's drown from that independent-minded voter, drawn from people who haven't necessarily even voted before: i guess people can't register on the day of here, right? >> no. >> so he can't draw that crowd of brand new voters, likely not. and in a lot of respects it will work well for hillary clinton, especially with a democratic base in tucson. tucson is very sensitive when it comes to gun control issues. we had the january 8 shooting issue here, gabrielle giffords. >> that was two blocks away from here. >> about three minutes from where we sit now.

there's a makeshift memorial out there years later. and her stance on gun control could bode well in tucson. >> but that's southern arizona, not northern arizona. >> no, northern arizona which is mostly republican and arizona as a whole traditionally appreciates guns. there's open carry here. you see people walking around with guns in stores. it's not outside the norm to see that. but the sentiment is changing slightly in some respects after the shooting in tucson. >> one last question, jane sanders, the wife of bernie sanders was here visiting the tent cities. you used to work in phoenix. you know these tent cities, you've been there. this is the place where they hold people who are convicted of -- i think they're being prosecuted for crime vors they been -- >> they're low-level offenders, dui cases, drug offenses, not the maximum security facilities. >> and what does it look like? what does it feel like there? >> it looks like green tents as

far as the eye can see in the desert with guard towers. i used to interview sheriff joe arpaio frequently. >> who supports donald trump, by the way. >> yes. and i've been in tent cities. it's a brutal environment. but as he says, this is jail, it's not supposed to be a day camp. >> it's a divisive issue here. jane sanders saying she found it inhumane. steve, thank you so much. it looks like we might be close to the start of the press conference in brussels, belgium, so let's go live to belgium. that's belgian and french officials delivering an update on today's raid that led to the arrest, prime suspect -- a prime suspect in the paris attacks. let's listen in. >> translator: authorities have arrested salah abdeslam. the searches took place and these were linked with the

attacks in france. the security forces took place in molenbeek, belgium, three suspects were arrested, including salah abdeslam and of course i wish to thank our security forces most warmly. the information services, the police forces, the magistrates, those people who looked into this, investigators, it is intensive work which has been done, minute work, professional work which has been carried out and this led to these extremely results in the case of the struggle against terrorism, extremely important in our battle for democracy, for the values which we wont against

this form. more than a hundred searches were conducted, very often under extremely delicate conditions. we saw this in the beginning of this week. finally i wish to highlight the great importance of cooperation between belgium and france a few weeks to fight against terrorism together to affirm ambition to strengthen further possibility to work together to through light threw these investigations and tonight is certainly a success in this battle against

terrorism and against these abominable forms of denial of human lives. a few minutes ago we had an opportunity for francois hollande and myself to speak by phone with president obama who said how encouraged he was, how he hoped to continue the struggle with his country, too, for the values of freedom against all forms of violence and in particular against terrorism. president obama also asked ask me and i have great satisfaction of thanking all of the security forces of our country at this very important time. he is continuing in dutch.

>> translator: he is continuing in dutch. >> translator: i also wish to highlight the cooperation with france, which is so dear to us.

here are a few facts i want to indicate and a few words about i was concerned. i want to say how happy i am to be sad by side with president francois hollande together with the minister. we were and this was an extraordinary coincidence, we were together at a european summit meeting to try and make commitments with regard to the european project and the challenges we are faced with and i thought it was important that we were able to follow the operations close at hand. we were able to follow them this afternoon and tonight we are able to give this message to you. i'd like to thank my colleague from the belgian government who have worked intensively and

directly with our respective services, the minister of justice, minister of the interior, the foreign minister, the different vice ministers who are present here and together with the council and helped us work together with unity to try and be effective and we thank them. these are a few elements i wanted to describe to you and i give the floor to the president of the french republic, francois hollande. >> translator: ladies and gentlemen, belgian prime minister charles michel has just confirmed salah abdeslam has been arrested with two accomplices and he was formally identified. i have thoughts for the victims. the attacks of the 13th of

november, the attacks at st. denis. because salah abdeslam is directly linked with preparing, organizing and unfortunately perpetrating these attacks. i also think of the families who were waiting for this arrest as well all of those who from near and far were able to participate in this horrendous attack. i wish to congratulations the prime minister, the belgian government for the action undertaken after several weeks now and in particular welcome the work done by the special units, the information services and finally say that through these authorities of justice was able to take place, cooperation between france and belgium since these attacks but even before these attacks has always been

intensi intensive. once more it has proven to be effective even though it took some time and since it is not finished we have to continue to act. this cooperation between the information services and the police services a-- and there were french policemen present during taking place in forest and we would be happy to continue this and expand this cooperation. this cooperation is also of a judicial nature and salah abdeslam was under a european arrest warrant and i have no doubt the legal authorities have quickly requested extradition i

know that because it's not the first time that we will have to take that step. but the belgian authorities will respond to this in as favorable a way as possible and as quickly as possible and here i'd like to thank the minister of justice of belgium and the prosecutor. we are also aware that if this arrest is an important stage that it is not the final conclusion because there have already been arrests and there will be others in the future because we know that the network was a very large network. in belgium, in france and in other european countries. and so long as we have not arrested and prevent ed people

from harm who have been able to finance and build up these terrorist networks which committed the horrendous acts, these military acts of the 13th of november, our fight will not have ended and from tomorrow morning onwards according to the information communicated to me i vf a will have a meeting of the council of defense and we'll meet as well as the director of the services because we have to continue and we have to make sure this network but also other networks because we know that there were links. there were links which always lead to syria. to syria where daesh, the daesh group wanted these attacks to be organized, planned and funded.

it is from syria that these people left. we also fought at the european level and through coincidence, just at the time that we were meeting in the european council that we learned of the possible arrest. it hadn't been confirmed of salah abdeslam. and that fight must be conducted at a european level and all of the measures which have been adopted by europe have to be implemented very quickly and have the program for those who use air transport and the arms trafficking because these risks -- these people are still arm and they have an important arsenal. and it is very important tonight

we will have confirmation that there will be arrests which will allow us to know the real truth and that justice will take place, the justice of the french republic because it is the french who are responsible for this but the justice for the men and women who wish to live in freedom. thank you very much. any questions? >> translator: it is not the government but probably the prosecutor of paris who will be responsible for the inquiry, who will ask for the extradition. it is the legal authorities which will do so and as i said it's not the first time. there was another case and we had the expected response, the

belgian authorities responded and i'm confident in the achievement of this extradition so that abdeslam will be interrogated in france and can be judged in france. we've been watching a press conference under way in brussels, belgium. we heard from the prime minister of belgium, probably the biggest headline of this hour that there were three arrests made inkwluding the man on the right side of your screen, salah abdeslam. so now hearing from authorities that there were three arrests made in total in a raid earlier today in a neighborhood of brussels, belgium. we also heard the french president francois hollande talking about other arrests being possible. he said there will be other arrests, it as a very large network we're dealing with and he called for abdeslam to be

extradited to france to face charges there. let's bring back in foreign correspondent ayman mohyeldin in new york. ayman, they talked about the cooperation, about having a phone call with president obama as well. >> this was certainly a joint operation, if you will, in the sense that french officials were at least aware of it as it was taking place given the fact that the belgian prime minister was essentially briefing the french president as soon as the news broke that in fact salah abdeslam has been captured. it's very interesting to hear at the end of the initial answer by french president francois hollande who said he wants to see salah abdeslam extradited to france where he will be interrogated and face french justice for what he did. so that's going to be a very interesting development in the coming days to see how that process unfolds. keep in mind, he did reference other extraditions have taken place. one point that struck me was the french president once again

reiterating that the network behind this particular attack, the paris attacks, is deep and large, that it links all the way to syria once again draw and conjuring up the intelligence belief that this was an isis-directed operation as opposed to simply an isis-inspired one as we've seen in other parts. but obviously the confirmation as to salah abdeslam's arrest as well as those two other individuals, that's going to be very interesting to see as well, who these two individuals were, what kind of support were they providing him while he was on the run and who they may have been. we do know that french officials have been looking for an accomplice who helped abdeslam escape france shortly after the attack. they've identified that individual by name back in november, it will be interesting to see if he was one of these two individuals that they have arrested, kate. >> ayman mohyeldin, they said they spoke with president obama, president obama telling them how encouraged he was by today's

events. just after a short break we'll turn back to politics, just days now until the desert decides. tuesday's primary inching closer, what does it take to win over voters on both sides of the ail aisle. a man who knows a thing or two about arizona politics joins us next with the answers. when you think about success, what does it look like? is it becoming a better professor by being a more adventurous student? is it one day giving your daughter the opportunity she deserves?

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back now in tucson, arizona. the main stage for this tuesday's round of election contests. so it is time to ask a couple of experts. and i want to start with a little bit of breaking news. well, i'll introduce them first and then we'll start with breaking news. jim nimsal is senior writer of "tucson weekly." he happens to be at south by southwest, which is a beautiful place to be this time of year. he joins us. and matthew benson here with me, a gop strategist and former spokesman for arizona governor jan brewer, who was on with us yesterday here in tucson. nice to see you. thanks for being with us. >> great to be here. >> gentleman, we have some breaking news coming in. mitt romney just tweeting, "this

week, in the utah nominating caucus," so that's the vote happening wednesday in utah," he says, "i will vote for senator ted cruz," which i guess isn't such a big shock, because he's a utah resident and he was going to cast some vote against donald trump, you would assume. >> absolutely. and certainly he's been one of the most vocal critics of donald trump. >> i know you're politically neutral in this race, but i have to ask about arizona and the stop-trump movement we've been talking about all hour. do you see it affecting things here in arizona? or does donald trump have such hold over voters here, that he's going to take things anyway? >> here's the thing to keep in mind about arizona. we've been early voting here for weeks. there are 600,000 ballots that are already in the can. so if you think that the polling is legitimate, and he's up somewhere between 10 and 15 points, he's got a significant lead going into tuesday. >> jim, let me ask you about senator john mccain. because he's up for re-election here. such a strong, you know, voice in washington, has been re-elected a number of times. but he's running against a democrat, who's running an ad

against him, trying to tie him to donald trump. which, i guess, because he said that he would support whoever eventually is the republican nominee, but, what do you make of that add, and will it hurt john mccain at all? >> well, i think this is a position that john mccain's in an awkward situation. he's said that he will support the nominee, he appears to be getting more and more irritated, to be asked the question, and at the same time, he's coming out and saying that donald trump would be a very dangerous person to put into the white house. so east got two different arguments going simultaneously. and kirkpatrick, the congresswoman who is run againn against him, is trying to capitalize on that. she's pointing out the number of times that john mccain has said that he will support donald trump and hoping to capitalize off of trump's unpopularity with the general election electorate out there. >> matthew, let's assume for a moment that donald trump wins this state.

let's assume that he gets the nomination, and we're in a general election. this is a state that's historically a red state, but his support among hispanic voters, as you know, is quite low. how does he repair the relationship with the latino community here to try to win arizona? >> i think in many ways, that relationship is irreputable. i don't know how you walk bab some of the statements he made, some of the talk about building a wall and have mexico pay for it, rapists, murderers, that sort of thing. i think he has his work really cut out for him. >> and on the flip side, ted cruz is down if douglas right now as we're speaking. we haven't seen video of it yet, but he's in the back of a truck, going along the border with some ranchers down there, paychemaki visit. he's making a play for this state. is it possible ted cruz comes anywhere near donald trump on tuesday night? >> i think ted cruz probably has much better organization in the state than donald trump does. and i think at the end of the day, it's really not going to matter. i think donald trump is capturing arizona, judging from

all the polling statistics, our rugged individualists are basically going to do what everyone else in the country is doing in republican primaries right now. >> and i just got handed the full facebook post from mitt romney, just so we can read this out. the only way we can reach an open convention is for senator cruz to be successful in as many of the remaining nominating elections as possible. it sort of sounds like an endorsement, but again, he's a voter in utah, he's kind of walking the line there a little bit. but trying to defeat trump. >> it may as well be an endorsement. one wild card about arizona. there are 14 republican candidates on the gop battle here. 14. you've got candidates that people forgot were ever running, like george pataki. you've got others that are recent dropouts, marco rubio and ben carson. they're going to split that anti-trump vote. >> is it like florida with where some seniors vote for people who aren't really in the race anymore? >> well, you're going to have some of that. you'll have other people who, again, cast votes for marco rubio or ben carson before they

dropped out. it's going to split that anti-trump vote and make it that much of a steeper task for ted cruz. >> it's going to be another interesting night. matthew benson and jim nimsal, thank you so much for being with us. appreciate it. >> thank you. that does it for this hour of msnbc live. i'm kate snow coming to you from tucson, arizona. my colleague, thomas roberts, is going to pick up our coverage up next from new york. you're watching msnbc, the place for politics. the future belongs to the fast. and to help you accelerate, we've created a new company. one totally focused on what's next for your business. accelerating innovation. accelerating next. hewlett packard enterprise.

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like lobster lover's dream or new dueling lobster tails. it's a party on every plate, and you're invited. so come in while it lasts. hi, everybody. good afternoon. i'm thomas roberts. we start the hour here on msnbc live with the latest development about the anti-donald trump movement happening in this country. getting one of the bigger endorsements it's seen yet. coming from the former standard-bearer of the party, mitt romney. moments ago, romney writing on facebook that he would be voting for ted cruz in the upcoming utah nominating caucus. and here's why. according to romne t